Dr Lars Osterberg, M.D. and Dr, Terence Blaschke have reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, Adherence to Medication, (N Engl J Med 2005; 353:487-97) 2005 an alarming lack of adherence to required medication protocol, further noting that while the average rates of adherence in clinical trials is categorized as “high”, this number still comprises only rates of 43 to 78 percent. Most importantly, the authors note “The ability of physicians to recognize nonadherence is poor, and interventions to improve adherence have had mixed results.” Adherence, p. 487. The authors conclude “Poor adherence to medication regimens is common, contributing to substantial worsening of disease, death and increased healthcare costs.” Adherence, p. 494. The Trend Repot Series, 2008 Patient Adherence Update: New Approaches for Success, October 2008, report similar discouraging statistics. This broad range may possibly contribute to the public confidence in the FDA approval process and the importance of continued surveillance of a drug throughout the process. Furthermore, it may help to explain why, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA May 1, 2002), one out of every five new drugs that comes to market in the US is found to have serious or life-threatening adverse effects—unknown or undisclosed at the time of approval. It is against this backdrop of poor adherence, and potential danger to patients, that the present invention operates.
It has been widely recognized that methods and systems for insuring proper medication ingestion or administration by individuals are very important in defending against unnecessary sickness, deaths and other problems. Giving instructions and then letting patients fend for themselves has been shown not to work particularly well. This is because it is not only the improper ingestion of medicines that is the primary cause of medical danger. Rather, an overall lack of sufficient patient guidance is also part of the problem. Further, the inability to confirm a proper prescription regimen being provided to a user in the first place may cause a number of other problems with the use of such medication.
These issues are even more problematic in a clinical trial setting where a lack of adherence to a particular assigned protocol may influence eventual approval of a particular drug therapy, potentially denying a valuable drug to the public and resulting in possible rejection of drugs that should be on the market that have been backed by pharmaceutical companies for hundreds of millions of dollars. Additionally, failure to adhere to prescribed protocols in clinical drug trials may result in poor data collection and evaluation, thus resulting in the above mentioned deaths from failure for trials to identify potentially life-threatening side effects. Poor adherence to prescribed protocols in clinical drug trials may refer to any deviation in a patient's behavior from that recommended by the trial designers, including, in addition to improper medication administration, improper timing of administration, such areas as dietary advice, advice on smoking, or even advice about attendance for further investigation or follow-up. Specifically in clinical trials, any such poor pharmaceutical compliance by the patient may result in inadequate results or outcomes.
Corrupt or incomplete clinical trial data, inefficiency in following drug regimens and the inherent liability involved with clinical trials further complicate an already time consuming, complex, and expensive approval process which may take between 8 to 12 years and cost over $900 million. Even after the initial clinical trial testing has been completed, there is generally no system for monitoring further use in Phase IV testing, or monitoring patients after launch. Given the possibility of failure of the clinical trial testing to ensure drug safety, such additional testing may be quite important. Inherent to the clinical trial process are a number of common mistakes that have not yet been addressed with existing clinical trial protocols.
Traditionally, participants attend introductions and follow ups for clinical trials in-person. Data collection is similarly limited to patient visits, rather than on a daily basis. Old methods such as patient questioning and pill counting have been proven to be inadequate measures of adherence and offer no information on dose timing and drug holidays (omission of medication for three or more sequential days).
Compliance technologies can increase the statistical power of clinical trials. Through the use of such technology, clinical events can be precisely linked to medication use history. Captured data can be linked to other sources such as EDC, patient diaries and data collected by the physician. Technologies can create many possibilities for remote visits and data capture. While smart packaging technologies exist such as RFID-enabled computer chip technology, smart blister packs and MEMS caps (microprocessor in a bottle cap), they are: a) invasive and need to be physically attached to the medications; b) are non-conclusive regarding compliance—a patient may activate the technology without ingestion of the medication; c) remain largely unadopted in clinical trials by the pharmaceutical and biotech companies due to their high cost; and d) take a longer time to implement.
Jo Carol et al. stated that “The most reliable method for research purposes, although not practical in a clinical setting, may be a combination approach that includes pill counts, patient self-report, and electronic monitoring.” (Carol J. et al, Patterns to Antiretroviral Medication, The Value of Electronic Monitoring, AIDS, 17 (12), pp 1, 763-767, October 2003. To date, technologies alone have only been used to monitor compliance rather than to encourage it. Furthermore, there has been no comprehensive system provided that allows for the management of multiple patients and multiple patient populations. While current technology may allow poor compliers to be recognized, as will be described below, the proposed system of the present invention will help to encourage pharmaceutical compliance and tackle some of the problems that are encountered in the clinical trial process.
Another problem is the issue of informed consent and the protection many clinical trials attempt to implement, often unsuccessfully, to protect themselves from potential lawsuits. A survey was conducted by CenterWatch (Getz, K. A. (2002). Informed consent process: A survey of subjects assesses strengths and weaknesses Applied Clinical Trials, 11(11), 30-36) to assess subjects' understanding of the consent documents further supports the concept that patients may not understand the forms they are signing. The survey reported that 14% of patients signed a consent document without reading the form. In the same survey, 30% of patients reported that they did not understand that their trial could carry more risk and discomfort than standard treatment. Nearly 40% of patients did not know that they could call an ethics board or IRB representative with questions about problems or concerns. The survey reported that 41% of patients did have study nurses review the consent form with them. The survey finally concluded that 70% of the participants may not have known what questions to ask at the outset of the informed consent process. And, this is with the current information provided and consent received from these participants. With approximately 77,967 trials in as many as 172 countries registered with ClinicalTrials.gov as of the date of this application, the logistical challenge of ensuring consistency is overwhelming.
In patients with psychiatric illness, adherence may be even more difficult and technology solutions such as the one proposed in accordance with the present invention may offer accurate ways to authenticate adherence. According to Cramer and Rosenhek (Compliance with Medication regimens for mental and physical disorders, Psychiatr Serv 1998), among patients with physical disorders, the mean rate of medication adherence was 76%, whereas among those with psychoses the mean rate was 58% and among those with depression the mean rate was 65%. Similar compliance issues might be expected to be present when dealing with child patients, or others who may have difficulty following potentially confusing instructions.
The logistical challenge of medication adherence and auditing in clinical trials is certainly increasing, with more than 70,000 clinical trials under way throughout the world, growing at a rate of 8 to 10 percent a year, according to CenterWatch in Boston, which lists clinical trials. In 2003, there were 3.6 million individuals enrolled in clinical trials in the United States, according to the center. Self-regulation in the industry is necessary as the FDA inspected only 1% of clinical trial sites during the 2000 to 2005 period (Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration's Oversight of Clinical Trials, September 2007). As the requirements for drugs increase, one can expect that the ability for the FDA to inspect such clinical trial sites to decrease even further. Furthermore, the average cost of $6533 to recruit a patient for a trial, and three times that amount to recruit a new patient if one is lost due to noncompliance is high so pre-screening subjects and monitoring them on an ongoing basis is critical. These numbers are significant given the fact that it has been calculated that if 30% of patients in a clinical trial had inadequate compliance, double the number of patients would need to be studied to create the same alpha and beta levels (Pledger G W. Compliance in clinical trials: impact on design, analysis and interpretation. Epilepsy Research 1988; 2 (suppl): 125-33).
Tufts CSDD Impact Report stated that within three years, major sponsors project that up to 65% of FDA-regulated clinical trials will be conducted outside the U.S.—primarily in Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, India, and Asia—due to economic advantages and ready access to well-trained physicians and large numbers of treatment-naïve patients. In addition, contract clinical services account for more than 17% of total drug development spending. The growth of sponsor spending on CRO (Clinical Research Organization) services will outpace overall growth in spending on global drug development for the foreseeable future, reflecting increasing reliance on contract providers to provide added capacity, more flexibility, and greater efficiency.
With greater amounts of clinical trials being conducted abroad, technology can aid standardization and provide greater communication where deficiencies in existing infrastructure such as physician and nurse training, may exist.
A number of systems exist that provide instructions to a user regarding when to take a medication and records when the user indicates that a medication has been taken. U.S. Pat. No. 7,359,214 describes such a system. A device is provided that provides instruction to a patient regarding medications to take. Furthermore, the system may provide a method for determining that the prescription is appropriate given the patient's conditions, and other medications he or she may already be taking. The system may monitor the dispensing of medicine in accordance with a predetermined treatment protocol. While such a system provides many improvements for easing a burden on the patient, this system suffers in many ways and in particular in ways relevant to the administration of clinical trials.
Most importantly, this system provides no mechanism for actually confirming that a patient is in fact ingesting or otherwise properly administering required medication as required in a clinical drug trial. While the system may be sufficient for one who is in full possession of their mental faculties, any individual who may have difficulty following directions, or one who is actively avoiding medication may still not be taking required medication after it is dispensed. Thus, participants may be forgetful, visually impaired, or otherwise do not believe in the benefit of taking such medication, and may thus not properly log medication administration. Furthermore, the system requires preloading of various medications into a dispenser, and thus likely requires regular visits by an administering manager to be sure appropriate medications are in fact properly loaded therein. It is surely possible that an inexperienced user may place incorrect medications into the device, or may somehow provide incorrect dosages into the device. Additionally, for potentially more complex regimens, there is no method provided for insuring that a user is able to follow such a protocol, and to thereafter confirm that the user has in fact taken all required medications in accordance with any provided instructions or the like, or has taken the medications according to one or more specifications or followed suggested procedures. Furthermore, this system is expensive and requires constant maintenance to confirm that the various mechanical parts are in working order.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/839,723, filed Aug. 16, 2007, titled Mobile Wireless Medication Management System provides a medication management system employing mobile devices and an imaging technology so that a user is able to show a pill to be taken to the system, and the system can then identify the medication. Patient histories are available to an administrator, including various vital signs as measured by the system. Images may also be taken of the patient, provider, medication container or the like. While the system professes to ensure adherence to a protocol, the system only provides such help if requested by a user. There is in fact no particular manner in which to ensure actual adherence or the relationship of adherence to the efficacy of the drug over time. When requiring adherence to a predetermined protocol for a clinical trial, this is particularly relevant.
Additionally, existing systems fail to maintain an audit trail for post administration review by a medical official or other clinical trial administrator, and further cannot therefore confirm confirmation of proper medication administration.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus that overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.